Vegetable slicer



T. A. KILLMAN ET AL VEGETABLE SLIGER Filed Dec. 15, 1935 5 Sheets-Sheetl I T. A. KILLMAN ET AL VEGETABLE SLICER 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed-Dec. 13,1935 T. A. KILLMAN ET AL VEGETABLE SLICER Filed Dec. 13, 1935 mmy;

3 Shets-Sheet 3 Patented Dec.28,1937 t V 2,135,31

uNiro stares Aren't orrles VEGETABLE SLICER Thomas A. Killman and RobertT. Killman, Nashville, Tenn.

Application December 13, 1935, Serial No. 54,164 3 Claims. (01. 146-168)This invention relates to a device for slicing trough thus formed iswelded or otherwise suitvegetables into attractive and useful forms.ably secured to the end piece 26 formed from An important object of thisinvention is to somewhat heavier sheet metal and to which the provide adevice of this type which, by means of member 2! is welded 'or otherwisesuitably. at- 5 very simple adjustments and rearrangement of tached. V

parts, is made capable of cutting vegetables into The floor of the frame20 is partially cut away 7 a variety of attractive and useful forms. toform a rectangular opening extending from Another object of thisinvention is to provide approximately the center of'the frame lengthwisea device of this character that is simple to opertothe end which isattached to the member 26.

m ate and easy to keep clean. A further object of Narrow ledges 21 areleft on eitherside of the 10 H this. invention is to provide a device ofthis charopening. A narrow strip of the metal 29 is rolled acter whichmay be easily and cheaply constructback upon itself to strengthen theportion 20a ed of inexpensive materials and which may be of the bottomof the frame which remains. packed into a very small space for shipping.Spot welded or otherwise s tably attached to Referring now to thedrawings, Figure l is a the two upturned sides of the frame are the 15perspective view of apreferred form of our invenguides or runners 28(see Figure 6) made by tion showing the vegetable pushing slide partlyturning up the edges of a narrow strip ofmetal. withdrawn and one of thecutting blades in a These runners have one end partially pointed ascutting position. at 28a in order to make the replacementoi' the Fi re 2is a cr se ion V ew tak n along a slide easier. Guided by the slidemember 28 and Vertical Plane through the e -4 0f Figure 1 sliding withinthe frame 20 is avegetable push- 20 looking in e direction of the ingframe generally designated by the numeral F e 3 isa cross section wtaken along a. as. This frame is made up of twolongitudinal Ver ic l pane th u e lines of Figure 1 channel shaped members 3| joined at one endby looking in the direction of the a channel shaped member 32 and at theother K F ure 4 is a ss section view taken along at end by the handlesupport member 33 Member al p an u h h l s l k in 33 has its ends turneddown and is pivoted to the d re on of t e the longitudinal members byrivets 34 so that the Fi u e 5 i a V w O the guide memberwooden handle35 which is fastened to member 90 Figure 6 is a cross section view takenalong a 33 by i t 35 may be folded back into the plane similar to Figure4 except that the cutting device bl e in Figure 4 has been reversed efer end The longitudinal members3l are further joined .and'top forbottom and'the vegetable pushin near their center bythe pusher plate 31and by member s been entirely Withdrawnthe finger plate 38. The fingerplate 38 is formed Figure? is a side view of a second cutting blade. asShown m piece of t, t t plu- Figure 8 is an end View of the same. ralityof downwardly turned fingers 39 separated- Figure 9 is e p View Of 0111'device with the by slots (ill. The upturned ears ll serve to attachsecond cutting blade in Position and the guide this plateto thelongitudinal members 3! either member in position for cutting corrugatedslices. by spot, welding or other suitable means. i 40 Figure 10'is agreatly enlarged cross section A: removable blade member 42 having two.40 w a n along .th of Figure 9 cutting ends, one; number is for thepurpose'of looking in the direction of the arrowsh cutting thin slices.and the other number 44 for ig i5 3 greatly enlarged 5 Section.icutting' French fries, is shown in Figures 1, 2', view taken from thesame point of the device but, and 4. in t posjtign for cutting. Fr hfries. 45 with the i e member and the vegetable placed and in Figure 6in the positionfor cutting slices; 45

in the pesifilen cutting e t s Member $2 is made from a piece of fiatsheet Referring new n e detail to t drawings metal by turning sides 45down. The edge M- is the numeral 20 indlcatesabox like framememsharpened being beveled on the m side; A her provided at one end Wlthbracket erfgagmg strip of metal 46 formed into the shape shown is member2| for' removable engagement: with the waded at the points 411 to the mmember 42; 50 bracket 22: adapted to be secured to a wall or The forwardedges 43 f t Strip 4 are h other suitable surface by means of screws23rened to a knife edge. Notches 49 are provided The frame 28 is madefrom-a pieceof sheet metal in the end of side member 45 adjacent. theedge. such as dairytin,etc., by turning. upsides along 44. Notches 5'6are provided. at the'endsiof side 5 'thelines 24 and 25-as shown. Oneend of the pieces laadjacent the edge 43.:iEdge 43 issharp- An emboss42a is formed on the surface of the cutting member 42 near the edge 43for the purpose of strengthening the cutting member 42 laterally. Whenin place in the device in a position for cutting French the downwardlyturned edges 45 rest upon the ledges 27 on the floor of the frame 20.The notches 49 in the ends of the sides 45 engage pins 50 located in theframe 20. Thus the blade is the frame 30 is pushed fully fingers 39extend to a point slightly beyond the rear edge of strip 46, while thestrip 66 extends between the fingers 39 into the slots 40 which to allowof this. 44 of the blade 42 extends above the or back diameters may beaccommodated.

The operation of the device for cutting French fries is as follows: Avegetable 54 such as a potato, etc. is placed between the cross members32 and 3?, the sliding normal to the long dimension of the pieces 55 soas to form cubes or diced vegetable.

The preparation and operation of the device of uniform thickness is asfollows: The same cutting member which was used in the cutting of Frenchfries, just described, is used also in this operation. The

cutting edge 43 on the end opposite to the one used in cutting Frenchfries is used. Assuming the device to be arranged for cutting Frenchfries the operation of converting it for cutting thin flat slices orchips consists in removing the cutting member 42 from the frame 20 whichis may be entirely removed from frame 28. Cutting member 42 is nowreversed end for end and top for bottom and reinserte the end withcutting edge 43 foremost, into frame 20 until slots 56 fully engage pins50, when the edge 44 is dropped into place so that the cutting member 42rests upon the ledges 27. The device is now ready for cutting chips. Thevegetable ously described, whereupon edge 43 cuts thin slices or chipswhich pass between cutting edge 43 and the rolled under edge 29 of floor20a. into pan 5? as before. In this operation, fingers 39 the variety ofcuts member 42. the use of a made by The remaining second cutting thenumeral 58 the use of cutting cuts are made by criss-cross or lattice,the Wavy corrugated, and the shoestring cuts are produced. In theproduction of the last two cuts a guide member is used in conjunctionwith the cutting member 58.

was assumed to either occupy the A position as how in gu or min heen enel e.- moved from. the device. 7

The cutting member 58 consists of two side membersfid similar in shapeand size to the side members 55 of the cutting member previouslydescribed. Sidemembersfid are provided with slots55 and 56 similar theside members of cutting member 42. Joining the side members 64 is thecorrugated blade member 51 sharpened to a knife edge at both ends.Member 61 is formed from a fiat sheet of metal by running it through twointermeshing gear-like rolls.

For cutting the wavy or corrugated, the shoestring, or the lattice orcriss-cross cuts the cutting member 42 is removed and replaced withcutting member 58 so that slots 65 engage pins and side members 54 restupon ledges 21. Guide member 59 occupies the A position. The vegetableis placed between cross members 32 and 31 of frame 30 which is movedforward and back one time. This operation causes blade member 61 to cutone slice from the lower side of the vegetable, the object being toleave a corrugated surface on the lower side of the vegetable. Thiscorrugated lower surface is the starting point for each of the cuts nowto be described.

In order to make the criss-cross or lattice cut the vegetable is simplypassed over the blade member 61 a second time, first turning thevegetable slightly about a vertical axis. The height of the blade member61 above the floor 20a is such that the corrugations cut through intothe grooves made by the previous cut and thus produce the criss-cross orlattice out.

In order to produce the corrugated or wavy cut the preliminarycorrugated lower surface is first formed on the vegetable as previouslyde-' scribed. Guide member 59 is then placed in the C position. In thisposition the guide member 59 lies opposite one of the upwardly curvedportions of the corrugated blade member 61. The

vegetable having the previously produced corrugated lower surface isplaced between cross members 32 and 31 and upon fioo-r 20a so that guidemember 59 lies in one of the grooves in the corrugated under surface asshown in detail in Figure 10 and generally in Figure 9. When frame 35 isnow pushed forward and with it the vegetable, the bladexmember 61 cuts acorrugated slice from the lower portion of the vegetable, in which slicethe grooves and ridges in the upper surface, due to the guiding actionof guide member 59, are all parallel to and interlocking with thegrooves and ridges in the lower surface, thus producing the wavy,continuous corrugated slice. I

In orderto produce the shoestring cut, the preliminary corrugated lowersurface is first produced as previously described. Guide member 59 isplaced in the 13 position. In this position-member 59 lies opposite adownwardly curved portion of blade member 61. The vegetable is placedbetween cross upon floor 25a. so that guide member 59 lies within one'ofthe grooves in the lower corrugated surface as shown in detail in Figureii. The height of the cutting member 51' above the floor 25a. is, aspreviously stated, such that the downwardly curved portions of the bladeare located slightly lower than the upper portions of the grooves in thelower corrugated surface of the vegetable sothat the blade cuts through.In the position just described when the frame 30 to' .slots 49 and 56of; 3

members 32 and 31 and and with it the the blade member 51, due to theguiding action of guiding member 59 cuts off the lower surface readinessfor the next out.

The cutting member 58 may be reversed end for ,end and topfor bottom; sothat slots engage pins 50 and used in this position to produce slicessimilar to those. above described except slightly thicker due to theincreased distance from blade 61 to the floor 20a when the cuttingmember 58 is reversed.

For cleaning purposes the frame 30 is entirely withdrawn from frame 20,the cutting members and the guide member removed thus allowing everypart to be thoroughly cleaned.

For compactness in packing for shipment cutting member 42 is placed inits operating condition, handle 35 is folded back into the device asshown by the dotted lines in Figure 4. Guide member 59 is placed in theC position and cutting member 58 is placed in the space between thelower edges of side members 3| and the floor Zlla directly under thefolded back handle 35. Various modifications of the arrangementsdisclosed herein come within the purview of this invention, the scope ofwhich is limited only by the appended claims. 7

We claim:.

vegetable 54 is pushed, inwardly,

1. In a vegetable slicer, a stationary frame havframe and lying in aplane parallel to and above said floor, a plurality of spaced verticalblades extending downwardly from the main cutting blade, a movable frameslidable within said stationary frame, composite vegetable pusher meanscarried by said movable frame and comprising an upper flat pusher stripmounted transversely of said movable frame and positioned entirely abovethe main cutting blade in a plane perpendicular to the plane of saidblade and parallel to its cutting edge, and a second lower strip mountedtransversely of said movable frame and lying in a plane parallel to andbelow the main cutting blade and spaced vertically from the upper flatpusher strip, said second lower strip being formed with slots, the endsof the metal between the slots being bentinto a vertical plane, saidplane being the plane that includes the upper flat pusher strip,whereby,at the end of a cutting stroke the main cutting blade passes into thespace between the upper and lower strips and the into the slots formedin the in said side bars for engaging the'slotson one end of the cuttingmember, said cutting member being capable of being reversed in positionso that bent down portions between said pins engage the slots entheother end of,

said cutting member, cutting edges formed on each end of said cuttingmember, .a strip bent to a zig-zag or serpentine form affixed to oneendof the cutting member, said strip having a plurality of verticalportions, a plurality of upper horizontal portions and. a plurality oflower horizontal portions, the upper horizontal portions being affixedagainst the underside of one end of the cutting member, the verticalportions of said strip being formed into cutting edges, and the lower inoperating position.

3. A cutting member for use in a vegetable slicer comprising a fiatplate, depending side flanges carried by said plate, cutting edgesformed on each end of said piate, a strip bent to a zig-zag orserpentine form afiixed to one end of said plate, said strip having aplurality of vertical por- THOMAS A. KILLMAN. ROBERT T. KILLMAN.

